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Trust no one – not even yourself. That's reasonable advice to follow whඣen exploring Ar🌟ea X – the setting of the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy.
The region has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades following a mysterious environmental crisis. A number of teams have entered the zone with... varying degrees of success. Some have returned, only for their members to commit suicide. Others turned on each other in the zone. N♉ow a twelfth expedition has been despꦉatched...
There are immediate comparisons to be made with other “weird zone” tales, like Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic , but Annihilation is altogether more cryptic. Area X is unknowable terrain and, appropriately, we're seeing it through the eyes of a narrator (referred to only as the Biologist) who withholds information from the reader – and from herself. Amid the strange lights and messages found growing on walls, the biggest mystery is the Southern Reach: a clandesꦓtine organisation that routinely hypnotises and manipulates its employees.
VanderMeer demonstrates expert care in what to keep back and what to reveal. Despite the simple plot, there's a new discovery or unnerving revelation every few pages. Immersive, insightful and often deeply bloody creepy, ⛦this is a startlingly good novel. If the sequels live up to it, then the Southern Reach series will be a major work.
Will Salmon
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